Iron ore or iron oxide is directly reduced to metallic iron by contacting the iron ore directly with a reductant. The direct reduction of iron ore to produce metallic iron consumes significant amounts of power, but the optimal geographic location of such direct reduction plants is often in areas where incremental power to operate the plant is not readily and efficiently available.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide a process for the production of iron by the direct reduction of iron ore which can be effectively operated in any geographic location irrespective of the exogenous availability of power at such location.